Home is where your creepy-crawlies are

You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. –  Gerald Durrell

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America reports that 78 to 98 percent of urban homes have cockroaches. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) note that there are 55 species of cockroaches in the United States, and while in general, they are tropical in origin and therefore prefer warm, moist environments, the reality is that most roaches have tolerances to heat, cold, moisture, and drought which far outstrip not only their mammalian neighbors (including, obviously, humans), but also a large percentage of their fellow arthropods.

Practically every home has roaches.  Houses are built for them
as much as for humans.  Maybe moreso.

The overwhelming majority of those homes with a roach infestation make use of some form of industrially produced chemical poison as a management strategy.
The most common poisons are pyrethrins, notably deltamethrin, a pyrethroid ester insecticide which has been popular with pest control experts for thousands of years – its original form, of course, was much more dilute, as it is derived from a compound found in crushed Chrysanthemum plants which Chinese herbalists have used since before written records began. The modern deltamethrin products such as Raid brand ant and roach sprays are typically classified as non-toxic to humans, given that the amount usually used per application does no more than insult (the medical term for irritate) on contact. 
It is worth noting, however, that measurable amounts of deltamethrin cross from a mother's bloodstream into the milk of nursing infants; it is also worth noting that deltamethrin toxicity has been observed in sometimes fatal amounts in cattle, making our unwillingness as consumers to at least pause and think about our basic approach to battling bugs somewhat problematic. 

Small wonder, then, that they love human habitations, areas designed to protect us against the vagaries of the elements, but which also provide them with not just shelter, but also food and water.  It's enough to give one the heebie-jeebies, thinking about the fact that their perfect home is right behind that wall, no matter which wall you happen to be looking at at any given time. 

Apart from simply making most people feel “icky” of course, roaches pose a significant health problem for humans.  Ironically, it is their very proximity to humans which makes them common carriers of pathogenic microbes -- in nature (that is, when not living in a human dwelling but rather in their more native habitat of leaf litter and rotting material), cockroaches (as with all members of the insect class Blattodea carry only a minimal bacterial load, most of which poses little to no immunological problem for humans.

In proximity to Homo sapiens, however, that bacterial and viral load increases dramatically, making roaches a significant vector of human diseases, ironically doing the most damage in this regard in hospitals and other health facilities. There is no better way to get sick than to hang out in a hospital or doctor's office.

Most insecticides are variations on
poisons discovered thousands of
years ago.  The "science" of insect
control is pretty much guesswork.

Even without the threat of spreading bacterial and viral diseases, roaches represent a significant threat in terms of the spread of allergens and endangering asthmatic patients, as well.
That particularly foul musk associated with cleaning out attic or basement spaces, which is so often attributed to mold or mildew? It is usually neither; it is more likely the smell of roach droppings and roach carcasses.

All of which explains our compulsion to eradicate the nasty little critters. It also explains our extraordinary frustration at being utterly incapable of doing so.

At this point in a Myrtle post, you are probably expecting us to talk about the virtues of roaches, or the evils of chemical control, or some such. 
We suppose you'd be partially right – we advocate a completely different approach from the norm when dealing with roaches, reducing the emphasis on killing them, and definitely reducing our reliance on chemical additives to our shared environment, but make no mistake, we hate the little buggers every bit as much as you do. We simply recognize that when one thing is not working, we should probably try something else. 

So, what are the most effective strategies for controlling pestilential cockroaches? The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend a four-part integrated management strategy, focusing on:

Prevention – eliminating the food and refuse which nourish and hide roaches, as well as sealing off possible entry points from the outside environment
Sanitation – not only removing their food and shelter, but also sanitizing any areas they might cross (both to prevent them from picking up germs in the first place, and to prevent them from leaving any germs behind)
Trapping – making use of non-chemical trap devices ("Roach Motel" type traps), which have the dual advantage of being long lasting, and (owing to the communal nature of roaches) affecting multiple generations
Chemical Control – the aforementioned pesticidal solutions

The CDC, as far as a broad outline goes, has pretty much got it spot on. Where we would quibble with them is in some of the particulars of how these four points get implemented.  We'll take each item in turn:

Prevention: 

It is definitely true that a clean kitchen/bathroom/closet/garage, etc. will have fewer roaches than will a dirty one, but that is not quite enough. 

The very design of modern (particularly modern American) homes and other buildings is seemingly custom made for the spread of cockroaches.  Remember, they don't ask for much when it comes to a satisfactory little Blattodean existence. A dry place to lay their eggs – such as might be found underneath any built-in cabinets, or behind any walls; a little organic matter to munch on – of any kind at all, be it a breadcrumb, a Tootsie Roll wrapper that fell behind the couch, or a smidgen of toothpaste on the bathroom sink... and they are set up for luxury roach living. 

We recently tore out our kitchen countertops, owing to a niggling voice in the back of our heads that something was not quite right. We told ourselves that it was because a family of four, living in a 900 square foot house, needed to maximize space... but we knew that this was only part of the reason. 

Note the spaces in a typical built-in cabinet that
are invisible to the human eye.  Roaches can
(and almost definitely do) live there.

It wasn't until we found that our pristine, well-washed and often-mopped kitchen was home to a nest of roaches who found the impregnable seal around the baseboards of our built-in bar and countertops to be not-so-impregnable that we realized the simple truth:  built-ins are a bad idea.We have not yet completed our kitchen remodel, but we know for sure it will have a couple of tremendous advantages over those of practically everyone whose advice we have chosen to ignore:1) It will be much cheaper; rather than buying new counters and cabinets, we will be relying on smaller, mobile tables and rolling islands, which can always be counted on to not hide anything (or anyone), while still fulfilling all the functions of their more expensive built-in counterparts.2) It will be much easier to install and maintain, while maximizing the interior space of our home reserved for human use only. 

When we came to this epiphany, we naturally sought examples online of counterless kitchens. To date, we haven't found other examples of folk doing it this way, but that isn't about to stop us. If a kitchen as impeccably clean as that kept by the somewhat OCD Mrs. Myrtle Maintenance was home to hidden roaches, we can promise you that there are creepy-crawlies under your sink, too.  (Don't feel bad -- no matter how much she tells herself otherwise, Martha Stewart has roaches in her kitchen. Bet good money on it.) 

Sanitation: 

More than likely, what the CDC had in mind dovetails nicely with what Myrtle thinks about the question of sanitation. Not only should food items be stored where roaches and other pests cannot get at them, but all cooking and cleaning surfaces should be regularly cleaned and sterilized.  Naturally, we recommend alcohol, vinegar or similar less-toxic varieties of disinfecting cleansers, foregoing bleach as much as possible, though we certainly do not begrudge medical facilities going all-out in their war against microbes. 

The main thing to remember is, when sanitizing, the focus is not merely on cleaning up after bugs, but also on cleaning up after humans, because bugs only spread disease if they have come into contact with disease, and the place where they are likely to have encountered pathogenic microbes is any unsanitized surface we have used. 

Trapping: 

Much as "Kleenex" brand tissues have dominated the market so long that "kleenex" is now the generic term for all tissues, Black Flag brand "Roach Motels" have dominated the market for roach traps so strongly that everyone remembers "Roaches check in, but they don't check out."  The concept behind the trap is simple: pheromones attract roaches into a trap from which they cannot exit. 

No pesticide is necessary; after the roaches have been immobilized, they are typically cannibalized by other roaches, who are then, themselves immobilized, the roaches have been immobilized, they are typically cannibalized by other roaches, who are then, themselves immobilized, and so on, until the pheromone eventually wears out. 

The advantages to this form of control are innumerable, not least of which is that the traps are quite literally non-toxic to anyone (not even the roaches), relying as they do on roach behavior to isolate and control their population.

The least toxic of the commercial control products.

The disadvantages involve the need for changing out the traps every few months... along with the fact that they can begin to smell somewhat unpleasant if they are working well. On the bright side, that's only a problem if they are actually doing their job. 
Chemical Control: 
Here (as you might have predicted), CDC and Myrtle take divergent paths. The most common roach control method in America is to spray the snot out of our houses with a cocktail of chemicals in hopes that our foolhardy creation of their perfect breeding grounds can be overcome by our foolhardy addiction to pumping chemicals into the environment at ever increasing levels. 
The aforementioned pyrethroid pesticides may not cause immediate death, and their carcinogenicity is marginal, but the idea that in combination with other environmental stressors the addition to our homes of irritants which decrease the effectiveness of our immune systems even temporarily is anything other than a bad idea is preposterous.  

Furthermore, pyrethroids are extremely toxic to fish and amphibians. If you're naïve enough to believe that spraying under your counters isn't going to affect what goes into the graywater coming out of your house, and then into the creeks and rivers in the countryside, all I can say is, you need to turn off the TV and start reading some science journals. 

There are several other categories of chemical control which present their own problems, though even the "best" chemical solutions unquestionably ought to form a last line of defense, coming in solidly behind the first three concepts discussed above. Some of the alternatives include:

• Boric acid - use in low quantities only, and in very specific applications to areas such as behind new baseboard installations, or other places where there is little chance of direct ingestion by humans or pets. Fatal to insects in small doses, it is also carcinogenic to mammals in large doses, so treat it accordingly.
  
• Poisoned bait containing hydramethylnon or fipronil - use these at all, and Myrtle will personally hunt you down and peck you into next Tuesday. These substances, much like pyrethroids, are extremely toxic to aquatic life; in addition, however, they are also extremely toxic to bees, butterflies, birds, small mammals, and children. Fipronil, in particular, has come into more widespread use as the Texas Agriculture Commission has foolishly suggested it as an "emergency measure" to control the Raspberry Crazy Ant. The "solution" is more crazy than the ant, we assure you.
  

• Herbal repellents - here, you are back in familiar Myrtle territory. Several plant-based odors are repugnant to roaches, including bay leaves, catnip, mint, cucumber, and garlic. In Singapore and Malaysia, taxi drivers use pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius) to keep roaches out of their cabs. Since pandan is a common ingredient in Indian and Bangladeshi cooking, finding it ought not to be too difficult for most Myrtle readers.

It is a truth so universally acknowledged that virtually all of us can remember discussing it as children: long after humans have ceased to walk the Earth, cockroaches will remain. It seems to us at Myrtle's place that the best way to cope with this fact is to stop trying to win, and start finding some way to effect a tactical retreat.  

Rather than attempting to win an unwinnable war, perhaps we ought instead to seek a separate peace -- the roaches can own the forest floor. As for the floors of our houses? Well, at Myrtle's place, at least, we're going to make sure those floors are all visible and sweepable. Most houses are (if we are being honest with ourselves) perfect habitats for roaches as much as for people. 

We aim to change that equation. If the roaches want to hide, let 'em hide in the chicken coop. 

Happy farming!